Archaic media policies make China a poor partner

President Obama has promised to raise issues of human rights
when he and his administration meet with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in
the next day. After that, Xi, billed as China's next leader, is expected to
make some speeches, visit a few factories, stop at the Pentagon, sign some
contracts that will strengthen economic ties between the two countries, and then
head home.

Yesterday, CPJ sent a letter to
Obama asking that he raise the issue of jailed journalists, restrictions on
access for foreign and domestic reporters to areas of ethnic and civil unrest,
and the heavy-handed approach of the Central Propaganda Department in trying to
control the country's increasingly dynamic mainstream media. But we have no
illusions: Human rights and media freedom will take a back seat as relations
with China revolve more and more around economic and security issues. The emphasis is
to establish a mature relationship between the two superpowers, who are
increasingly engaging with each other as peers.

But is China ready for this sort of meeting of equals? A few
days ago, according
to the BBC, the government "confirmed" that 19-year old Tibetan nun had set
herself on fire, protesting what she considers anti-Tibetan policies in China.
Apparently, at least 20 Tibetan nuns and monks have set themselves on fire in
the past year, but the number is hard to confirm because international media
are denied access to the area in Sichuan province where they have taken place.

Online mentions of Tibetan protests and self-immolations
have been disappearing, as documented by the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project. Today, it noted that CMP
researcher David Bandurski's own Sina Weibo post was deleted; it had shared
the Guardian's clandestine coverage
of Chinese authorities' aggressive suppression of protests. (Guardian reporter Jonathan Watts describes
sneaking pass police checkpoints to get into Sichuan province's Aba
prefecture, and said that Internet and cell phone signals had been blocked.)
Last week, Caijing journalist Luo
Changping's post about official warnings on social stability in Tibet was deleted. Investigative reporter
Liu Zhimin's post on
self-immolations in Tibet was also deleted, even though it relied on
week-old reporting from the official Xinhua News Agency.

Xinhua, and the Party-controlled Tibet Daily, are almost the only sources of news you'll find on the
Tibetan protests in traditional media within China--and you have to dig for it. This
English-language Xinhua story describes the importance of stability after a
series of self-immolations in Tibetan regions; the article describes "mob
attacks on police offices." The official Chinese-language coverage tends to be
even more direct in blaming lawless elements, directed remotely by the Dalai
Lama, for violence and chaos. This story from a state-controlled Tibetan news
website says that Internet
users worldwide have condemned the Dalai Lama for the bloodshed.

CPJ is accustomed to seeing the same sort of reporting and
access restrictions in much more poorly developed countries like Burma,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, where entire swathes of the country are cut
off to foreign media. But the United States does not meet with them on the same
footing as with China.

In fact, like those lesser developed countries, China is
under tremendous internal pressure. Its surging economy has led to class and
regional inequalities that harken back to the pre-Communist feudal era, while
ethnic struggles with Tibetan and Muslim groups in the west of the country are
centuries old. Muslim secessionists are growing as a threat, fueled by
cross-border contact with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and even China's
traditional ally, Pakistan. All these are no-go
areas for foreign reporters or Chinese reporters from other regions. And
while the media in the eastern big cities like Beijing, Guangdong, and Shanghai
have been persistently pushing censorship limits with aggressive
reporting, no such thing exists in areas of ethnic tension. CPJ's list of journalists in jail in China
consists increasingly of Muslim and Tibetan online activists who use their
access to the Internet to press their political agendas until they are whisked
away to prison. As with Tibet, the only news coming from these areas is the
fully sanctioned, government version. There is no independent reporting.

These sorts of media policies do not make for a mature
partner on economic or security issues, and they have to be addressed if the
United States and China are going to move forward. A country that is building a
dynamic economy bolstered by authoritarian media policies that are decades old
is not a peer. And for those who dismiss concerns about what they see as mere
human rights issues like media freedom, they must realize they are dealing with
a flawed partner, one intent on suppressing and distorting the political reality
that lies at the base of its economic power. No matter its economic or military
strength, without fully opening its traditional and digital media, China must
be seen as a flawed partner, one not secure enough within its own population to
be a full-fledged player on the international stage.

Bob Dietz, coordinator of CPJ’s Asia Program, has reported across the continent for news outlets such as CNN and Asiaweek. He has led numerous CPJ missions, including ones to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Follow him on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.

Share

Deciding who decides which news is fake

March 14, 2017 6:09 PM ET

Authorities decry the proliferation of misinformation and propaganda on the internet, and technology companies are wrestling with various measures to combat fake news. But addressing the problem without infringing on the right to free expression and the free flow of information is extremely thorny....

Snowden travels trace a path of government hypocrisy

June 24, 2013 9:03 AM ET

Edward Snowden's global travels have highlighted the chasm between the political posturing and actual practices of governments when it comes to free expression. As is well known now, the former government contractor's leaks exposed the widespread phone and digital surveillance being conducted by the U.S. National Security Agency, practices...

Kerry should press Beijing on press freedom

April 12, 2013 3:30 PM ET

As John Kerry visits China this weekend in his first trip there as U.S. secretary of state, he should take the opportunity to engage Chinese leaders on their problematic record regarding press freedom. ...

Drawing lessons from Chinese attacks on US media

February 7, 2013 12:38 PM ET

Not every media company is as tempting a target for hackers as The New York Times, The Washington Post, or The Wall Street Journal. Not every company can afford high-priced computer security consultants, either. Is there anything that everyday reporters and their editors can learn about protecting themselves, based...